In 2024, at least 7 senior officials in the railway system have been investigated, including the most recent case of Zhao Honggang, former Deputy Director of the Wuhan Railway Bureau. Analysts suggest that the monopolistic railway transportation system harbors a hidden network of illicit interests, and as a semi-autonomous kingdom formerly controlled by the Jiang Zemin faction, it is now undergoing a continuous purge under the current party leader Xi Jinping.
According to information released by the Communist Party’s disciplinary committee on May 8, Zhao Honggang, the former Deputy Director of the Wuhan Railway Bureau, is currently under investigation for serious violations of discipline and the law.
Public records show that Zhao Honggang, born in July 1956 in Lingbao, Henan Province, holds a master’s degree, is a senior economist, and has held positions such as Deputy Director of the Wuhan Railway Bureau and Chairman of the Wuhan Railway Bureau Labor Union.
As early as August 2015, Zhao Honggang, then Deputy Director of the Wuhan Railway Bureau, received a “serious warning within the Party and a major administrative penalty” for causing operational losses to a company due to dereliction of duty.
The Wuhan Railway Bureau, a crucial hub in the national railway network under the control of the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (formerly known as the China Railway Corporation), has seen several high-ranking officials implicated in corruption cases before.
Since the beginning of 2024, apart from Zhao Honggang’s downfall, at least 6 other railway officials have been under investigation.
On April 29, Wang Lijuan, former Deputy Director of the Beijing Railway Bureau and Secretary of the Beijing Station Party Committee, was investigated for serious violations of discipline and the law. Wang Lijuan’s father, Wang Runsheng, once served as the Director of the Linfen Railway Sub-bureau of the Beijing Railway Bureau and the Director of the Tianjin Railway Sub-bureau. It was reported that in 2013, the former Minister of Railways, Liu Zhijun, who was sentenced to death with a reprieve, had benefited from Wang Lijuan’s father. When Liu Zhijun rose to the ministerial level, Wang Lijuan became the station master of the Beijing Station and also served as the Deputy Director of the Beijing Railway Sub-bureau, according to sources from the Beijing Railway Bureau.
On April 11, Jiang Tao, former Director of Changchun Railway Bureau and Secretary of the Party Working Committee, as well as Deputy Director of the Shenyang Railway Bureau, was investigated for serious violations of discipline and the law.
On March 26, Wang Song, a member of the Communist Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of the China Railway Chengdu Group Co., Ltd., was investigated for serious violations of discipline and the law.
On February 21, Luo Wuwei, former Deputy General Manager of the China Railway Shenyang Group Co., Ltd., was investigated for serious violations of discipline and the law.
On January 16, Xiong Chungeng, former Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the China Railway Nanchang Group Co., Ltd., voluntarily confessed to problems and is currently under investigation.
On the same day, Li Zhiyi, former Director of the Engineering Management Center of the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., was investigated for serious violations of discipline and the law.
Last year, at least 8 people in the railway system were implicated in corruption.
On December 26, 2023, Xing Donghe, Deputy General Manager of the China Railway Taiyuan Group Co., Ltd., and Yang Guoxiu, former Deputy Director of the Taiyuan Railway Bureau, were both investigated.
On December 12, 2023, former Minister of Railways Sheng Guangzu was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 6 million RMB for bribery and influence-peddling. Sheng Guangzu was officially investigated in March 2022 and expelled from the Party in September of the same year.
On September 4, 2023, Yang Xucheng, member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of the Beijing Railway Bureau, was investigated for serious violations of discipline and the law.
In July 2023, Sun Yongning, a specialist and external director of the China Railway Qinghai-Tibet Group Co., Ltd., was investigated. On April 3 of this year, the Communist Party’s procuratorial organ decided to arrest Sun Yongning on charges of bribe-taking and having a huge amount of unexplained assets.
In May 2023, Jia Jun, member of the Communist Party Committee, Deputy General Manager, and Chairman of the Labor Union of the China Railway Qinghai-Tibet Group Co., Ltd., was investigated, and on December 21 of the same year, Jia Jun was formally arrested on charges of bribery and bribery.
In April 2023, Zhou Rong, former Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the China Railway Chengdu Group Co., Ltd., was investigated.
In March 2023, Huang Wei, Deputy General Manager of the China Railway Nanning Group Co., Ltd., was investigated and subsequently sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for bribery on February 7 of this year, along with a fine of 1 million RMB.
The Communist Party’s Ministry of Railways was established on October 1, 1949, transforming the former Military Commission’s Ministry of Railways into a subsidiary institution under the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council known as the National Railway Department. The Ministry of Railways wielded more power and authority than other ministries, implementing a semi-militarized or even completely militarized management approach over decades, with its own public, procuratorial, and judicial system and complete autonomy.
On March 10, 2013, the State Council of the Communist Party renamed the Ministry of Railways to establish the China Railway Corporation, which is under the management of the Ministry of Transportation. Over the 64-year period from 1949 to 2013, 13 individuals served as Ministers of Railways. The last two ministers, Liu Zhijun (2003-2011) and Sheng Guangzu (2011-2013), were both implicated in corruption cases.
Liu Zhijun, a former railroad worker, rose to the position of Minister of Railways in 2003 through flattery and cunning stratagems towards the Party leader Jiang Zemin. In February 2011, Liu Zhijun was exposed for embezzling 800 million RMB.
After Liu Zhijun’s downfall, Sheng Guangzu succeeded him as the last Minister of the Communist Party’s Ministry of Railways. In 2013, the Ministry of Railways was superseded by the China Railway Corporation, with Sheng Guangzu serving as the first General Manager and Party Secretary. His promotion was believed to be due to the support he received from Jiang Zemin and former member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party, Zhang Dejiang.
In March 2022, Sheng Guangzu was taken down, allegedly using public power as a tool for personal gain, exploiting both customs and railways for corrupt practices intertwined with nepotism and abuse of authority.
Political commentator Li Yanming told Dajiyuan that the railway system had long been controlled by the faction of Jiang Zemin, with most officials from the minister to various levels being pro-Jiang individuals. It was the corruption headquarters of the Jiang faction. In 2009, the State Council of the Communist Party established seven ministerial-level positions for the Ministry of Railways, filled by individuals from Minister Sheng Guangzu to six deputy ministerial-level high-ranking officials, and then five chief engineers, chief planners, chief economists, chief dispatchers, and chief safety officers, most of whom were pro-Jiang individuals.
Due to its monopolistic operations and the high-speed rail “leap forward,” the Communist Party’s railway system harbors a network of illicit interests and corrupt practices. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party, two former Railway Ministers have been implicated, and in the past year and a half, more than a dozen railway executives have been implicated, indicating that the railway system, once a semi-autonomous kingdom of the Jiang Zemin faction, is undergoing a continuous purge.
“The infighting among political forces of different factions within the Communist Party and the struggle for the profit chain may lead to the exposure of even higher-level ‘big tigers’ in the future, which is worth paying attention to.”